


Cracked.

by KaijinKyn



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, Child Death, Death, Fratricide, Gen, Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend Spoilers, I'm Sorry, Pre-Canon, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 13:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11208945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaijinKyn/pseuds/KaijinKyn
Summary: “Be careful with your brother, Yuuya. Children’s skulls are very soft and weak; if you drop him or something lands on his head, something very terrible could happen.”





	Cracked.

**Author's Note:**

> GOD, I'M SO SORRY BUT THIS IDEA HAS BEEN IN MY HEAD FOR MONTHS NOW-  
> PLEASE DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE SQUIRMISH OR DON'T LIKE DEATH OR GORE. PLEASE.  
> KEEP GOING AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The grounds of the Le Bel mansion were hot and the inside of the building was hotter, nearly every window open in a useless effort to cool down the inhabitants inside. The child in his arms was asleep and loosely wrapped in blankets as to prevent overheating, though for how long he couldn’t say.

Yuuya wasn’t supposed to be there. He wasn’t allowed inside, technically - he had always been safest at his mother’s side, her built-in maternal protectiveness keeping him from Monsieur Le Bel’s more drastic actions. Most of the time the head of the house paid him little attention, but the butlers and maids all knew to escort Yuuya outside if they saw him trampling mud across the carpets, as a mongrel of his sort was wont to do, which is why he ducked behind doors and hid as best he could when they passed him.

He had to be careful, especially today, especially now, especially with the child he was holding. He didn’t have long to pull this off.

After almost getting seen by a wood pigeon maid because of his dirty and somewhat too-small shoes that were sticking out from beneath a curtain, a mistake he didn’t notice until too late, his discovery only prevented when the maid was called away by something else important and perhaps taking pity on the bastard fantail child she no doubt knew was hiding. Not all the workers here hated him, after all - they were the same, treated like scum by Le Bel and the rest of the family. If it weren’t for the fact that orders were orders and defiance meant losing your job, Yuuya would have been welcomed among the servants.

The nursery was empty when he slipped inside, though it was anything but quiet. The child in the cot, abandoned by mother and father alike, no maid or butler to be seen - Yuuya nearly felt sorry for him as he peered down at his half-brother, bawling and screaming his throat near-raw, wrapped in blankets that were surely too hot for him. Sakuya Le Bel… That was the name his mother had given him, the name of Yuuya’s real father, the name of the man Le Bel had killed. Perhaps, in its own way, that was her own form of spite. 

Half out of a small act of useless mercy and half to keep the child in his own arms from waking, Yuuya scooped up Sakuya and loosened his blankets, quieting his cries and earning Yuuya a wide-eyed, innocent look that Yuuya couldn’t hold. Now he had two babies in his arms, virtually identical in this early stage of their lives - except his real brother was a little older, a little thinner, malnourished due to Yuuya being unable to properly feed him. He’d get what he needed now; food, care, wealth. Yuuya’s true brother, the  _ real _ Sakuya Shirogane, would have what Yuuya could never be granted. That was enough for him. The other son, the true Le Bel… 

Yuuya’s orders were to kill his brother. Which one had never really been specified.

With that thought in mind, Yuuya set down his real brother in the empty cot, looking down at him lovingly for a moment. He was doing this for Sakuya, for his late father - for himself, yes; it was an act of spite. But Yuuya deserved his own victory, to know that when Le Bel called Sakuya ‘his son’ he’d be talking about the wrong child. 

That only left the now-quiet baby in his arms, which Yuuya gave a far less kind look. The Le Bel only stared up at him in return, childish naivety shining in light blue orbs, completely unknowing of the fate about to befall him. Not here, not in the house, of course not - somewhere outside, where he couldn’t be caught, where the evidence would be more easily hidden. He just had to get out of the house first.

Alone, that would have been easy enough - all he’d need to do was waltz up to a servant and let himself be thrown out, but with ‘Sakuya’ in his arms that was decidedly harder. Yuuya was sure the two children looked enough alike for suspicion to be low, but his brother was supposed to be dead already. He’d let things go on for longer than they should have done; he had to get this over with.

Once again Yuuya was almost caught as he left, a voice calling out for him to stop as he dashed away, little legs carrying him as fast as they could out the door and into the hot summer sun, Yuuya not stopping his dash even then until he was sure he was far away enough from the mansion and entered the outskirts of the woods surrounding the grounds, caring little for jostling the child in his arms. After a while he slowed to a stop, breathing heavy and listening to ‘Sakuya’s excited babbling, the child very much a dead weight to Yuuya.

“Was that fun for you? Us almost getting caught?” Yuuya knew the child couldn’t understand his words, only giggling at the attention and reaching up with small, stubby fingers to grab at Yuuya’s face. Yuuya tried not to think about it too hard; the innocence of the boy he was carrying, the intent behind his actions, ‘Sakuya’ growing heavier in his arms the further into the woods Yuuya walked. This was necessary, he reminded himself, trying to forget much the same noises Sakuya had made when Yuuya had talked to him, hiding his real brother away in his room for as long as he could. Le Bel deserved this; his true heir taken away from him. He had taken Yuuya’s father after all - an eye for an eye, as they said.

It wasn’t the only way Yuuya could do things. Maybe an orphanage could take the boy in, perhaps Yuuya could leave a bundle with a note on somebirdie’s doorstep. But wouldn’t it be suspicious if, in a few years, a fantail who looked far too alike to Monsieur Le Bel appeared living near the mansion? Wouldn’t that raise a few flags? It wasn’t worth the risk, to both Sakuya and himself.

Eventually a familiar clearing came into sight and Yuuya sighed with relief as he sat on one of the larger, chipped boulders that were scattered around, ‘Sakuya’ being placed aside to give his sore arms a rest. His real brother had been far lighter… 

“You’re fat.” Yuuya accused the baby, for lack of a better thing to say, only getting that same stare Yuuya couldn’t hold in return. He hadn’t planned this far ahead, hadn’t expected to actually reach this point. In his head so many things had gone wrong, but this… This had been far too easy. Guilt bubbled in his chest and gnawed at his stomach, making Yuuya feel a little sick. Even if the child beside his  _ was _ a Le Bel, it wasn’t his fault he’d been born to such a horrible man, born in such… Terrible circumstances.

Couldn’t he just leave ‘Sakuya’ here? Let him die of starvation or dehydration, whichever came first? It sounded cruel, but… It was the most merciful thing Yuuya could think of. He wouldn’t last long, he was only a baby.

...No, it wouldn’t be enough. He wasn’t really all that deep into the woods, this clearing was on a path well-frequented by members of the mansion. Somebody could find ‘Sakuya’ before he died and  _ then _ what would Yuuya do? The only other option would be to actively murder the child, murder his own half-brother.

Eyes flickering towards the boy, Yuuya wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or not to see ‘Sakuya’ sleeping, the cooler temperatures of the trees around them apparently soothing the young heir into sleep. It made things easier, at least - he wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t wail. Whatever Yuuya decided to do… 

He reached out to the child almost absentmindedly, brushing his fingers against the soft tufts of blue hair that were growing in, much like Sakuya’s had been. Light blue hair… A fantail trait. Darker blues went to more common folk, like rock doves - nobody would notice that Sakuya wasn’t ‘Sakuya’. All he had to do was get rid of the other.

And, as his fingers touched soft hair and drifted along pure, unblemished skin, feeling the skull of his half-brother beneath his touch, Yuuya had an idea.

His mother had told him, the first time Yuuya had met ‘Sakuya’ -  _ “Be careful with your brother, Yuuya. Children’s skulls are very soft and weak; if you drop him or something lands on his head, something very terrible could happen.” _

‘Terrible’. Head trauma of some kind, death in certain situations. Children’s heads are soft and weak. Easily breakable, like eggs. And there were so many stones on the ground…

Hopping off the rock he was sitting on, Yuuya tried to think about  _ why _ he was doing this, rather than _what_ he was doing specifically, grabbing the heaviest stone off the dirt floor that he could find. It wasn’t too much trouble to lift, he was strong - it only barely didn’t fit in his palm, somewhat jagged along the edges. He turned to the sleeping baby with a guilty expression, feeling nausea eat at his stomach.

For Sakuya. He was doing this for Sakuya. For warm clothes, for good food, for a nice bed. He would be loved like Yuuya wasn’t, he would have everything, he would be _happy._

Yuuya raised his arm and brought down the stone on the head of his half-brother with a violent swing, feeling skin split beneath the stone.  _ For Sakuya. _ He didn’t pause to think as he did it again, smashing the stone against hard bone.  _ For Sakuya.  _ He hadn’t expected to meet such resilience; his mother had made it sound so easy to break his brother’s head. He did it again, aware of something wet on his fingers and making his grip on the stone slippery.  _ For Sakuya. For Sakuya. For Sakuya. _

He could hear screaming through his desperate mantra and wondered if he’d woken the child up, wondered how he couldn’t have - until he realised it was his own throat that was growing sore, his own screams tearing from within as he turned his half-brother’s skull into a bloody, broken mess, only stopping when the stone in his hand touched something soft and  _ wet. _

The thing on the rock was no longer ‘Sakuya’ - it wasn’t even a child anymore. No, it was a corpse with a skull that was fractured and broken, a face bloodied and smashed beyond repair. Yuuya saw it all; the blood on his hand, the blood on the rock, bits of brain visible between destroyed bone.

He was sick.

An hour later, Yuuya walked out of the forest with no signs of what he’d done left on his body except for small flakes of blood under his fingernails, something unnoticeable unless you were looking specifically for that kind of detail. He went back to his room, the small thing he had been given by Le Bel that was near the servants quarters, and then he sat on his bed and cried and didn’t stop crying until he had no more tears to shed.

And years later, when Sakuya - Sakuya Shirogane, Sakuya  _ Sakazaki  _ \- knelt over his weakening body with tears streaming down the younger fantail’s cheeks as he screamed his elder brother’s name, Yuuya shed the first tears he had since killing his half-brother and could be satisfied knowing he’d given Sakuya the best life possible, even at the expense of his own. 

He wondered if the real Le Bel heir would have felt the same way.


End file.
